KANSAS CITY, Mo - Much of the talk at Thursday's Big 12 media gathering at the Sprint Center arena was about the strength of the conference, with Kansas head coach Bill Self calling this year the "best it's been" since its inception. Picked to finish fourth in that league is Frank Martin's Kansas State team, a squad that seems to truly believe it has the chance to be great. So when Martin and his players took their turn to address reporters, their words had a much different tone than they have in years past.